Sola fans breathe a collective sigh of relief as it manages to not screw up a perfectly set up ending. I was really doubting whether they’d have the guts to kill off Matsuri and Yorito, especially after the cliffhanger last week. But they pulled through and finished off with a great bittersweet “life goes on” type of ending. As with most of Sola’s development, it has been done to hell and back, but that doesn’t make it any less exceptional in its execution, an excellent ending. d7b031c9ba973492f94922ec19fe370e

Episode Rating: 10/10

Picking up where we left off, Matsuri goes to stab Aono, thus returning her to a human being. However, she hesitates for a moment and only manages to graze Aono’s shoulder. Yorito stands in between Aono and Matsuri and refuses his sister’s orders to move out of the way of her counter attack. The shock from Yorito’s disobedience and the pain from Matsuri’s sword makes Aono retreat for the moment.

With both Aono and Matsuri wounded, they both know this fight has to come to an end soon. Aono’s yaka powers are fading and Matsuri, having impaled herself, doesn’t have the energy to fight much longer. Gathering what remains of their fading strength, they cross blades one last time.

Not surprisingly, Matsuri ends up getting her ass handed to her. But when Aono charges at her for the final blow, Yorito once again parries the attack. But the strain on his body and Aono’s disappearing yaka powers can’t hold him together any longer, just like one of Aono’s paper clones, he disappears in a flurry of origami sheets. With a strengthened resolve from seeing Yorito sacrifice himself, Matsuri’s hesitation is gone, she stabs the crying Aono with the sword, returning her to her human form.

The two look on as Yorito’s paper remnants and the shards of Matsuri’s life force float away into the dawn’s sky. Off in the distant horizon, the sun rises and covers the two of them in light under a beautiful sky. Matsuri is glad that she was finally able to see the open sky, and disappears with a smile.

The second half of the finale is dedicated to the aftermath of the series. Hige and loli in a box continue to wander the world, only now enjoying each other’s company instead of being hellbent on revenge. But you can’t help but feel sorry for them, the fate that lies ahead of them is a cruel one. No matter the circumstances, Hige is human and will die one day, leaving loli in a box completely alone, especially since Aono is human as well, and Matsuri is gone.

A year has gone by since the incident that lasted a few months, yet Sae continues to bawl over Hige, annoying voice and all. Meanwhile, Aono, Koyori and Mana become friends all over again through the power of origami and the sky.

The final scene in the series makes everything come full circle, the ending mirroring the beginning. Mana, Koyori and Aono wake up early to go see the sunrise at the same place where the fateful meeting between Yorito and Matsuri took place. Complete with a brand new vending machine that has inherited its predecessor’s trait of eating money and needing a good kick to set it straight.

The final shot pans up to the gazebo on the hill, on it rests two empty cans of Matsuri’s favourite tomato soup drink.

Thoughts

A surprising thing happened during this final episode of Sola, my hate for Aono ALMOST disappeared completely. The flashback to when she and Matsuri first met portrayed her as a very kind and sincere person. I guess the bitter Aono we saw throughout the majority of the series was just a result of her guilting herself over Yorito’s death. It was nice to see her trying her best to move on and enjoy the new life she was given after Matsuri and Yorito’s sacrifice.

The flashback also explained the whole bit about Yorito’s sky tile ceiling and why it had such a profound effect on Matsuri’s emotions at the time.

But even though my “DIE IN A FIRE” hate for Aono has more or less subdued, I’m still an advocate for YoritoXMatsuri. The dynamic between the two is far more natural than it ever was between YoritoXAono. Even in the midst of a life threatening battle, the two manage to talk to each other naturally, as if on a typical weekend date. But again, as a rising Noto fan, I can’t say this opinion is completely without bias. For the other side of the argument, read Stripey’s take, although you can clearly see the siscon inspired bias here XD but despite disagreeing with him, I like to look at both sides of the argument and attempt to remain impartial.

One part of this episode that I liked was Mana’s screaming confession. It’s saddening to know that she won’t remember anything about Yorito in detail, but the feelings of nostalgia she has are an indication of how strong her feeling for him were. She even quit her job as a waitress at the family restaurant, the common belief being that when trying to get over a loved one, you change your lifestyle (or for girls, often their hairstyle).

Sola was a great series to blog, there was always just enough things going on that I could take a guess at what was coming next, yet random enough that it wasn’t completely predictable. Many thanks go to lolikit, who was responsible for me blogging Sola in the first place (even if he did bail soon after…), I probably would have picked something generic and shallow like Nagasarete Airantou instead, good call.

How do I copied character designs?

Sola was a generic series, through and through, with many borrowed cliches and played out plot developments. But it just goes to show that genericness doesn’t necessarily lead to a bad show, Sola took many things that have been done in that past, and used them damn well. While innovation will always come out on top, the familiarity of a series like Sola is a nice break, especially since the line between an innovative storyline and a stupid, nonsensical storyline isn’t very well defined.

Thanks to everyone who read these posts and added to the discussion, hopefully you stick around for the summer season, failing that, I’ll be sure to cover the Sola’s OVA episodes released with the DVDs.

Obligatory loli chop

~ Shirukii ~

I’m speechless. This episode was unbelievably amazing. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been bracing myself for what I thought was the inevitable “LOL, MIRACLE!” deux ex machina ending where everyone makes it out alive and well. But it looks as my worries were misplaced as we’re all set up for one EPIC ending.

The episode itself was a back and forth mashing of present day events and flashbacks, rather than cause the summary to become a mess by jumping back and forth between timelines, I’ll separate it into distinct parts.

Episode Rating 10/10

The episode starts off with a flashback to Yorito’s previous life, seemingly hundreds of years ago. The scene depicts Yorito, Aono and Matsuri living together happily, discussing their plans to leave the village together. From the dialog, it seems like this scene takes place before Aono becomes a yaka and Yorito dies, because they talk about the village being suspicious of whether Aono is alive or not and plans for the three to leave together.

Later in the episode, we get a flashback that explains everything. Aono was meant to be a sacrifice to appease the curse of the yaka. However, Aono and Yorito decided to fake it out and keep on living. But superstitions seem to get the better of them, as a torrential flood hits the village, a flood which Yorito falls victim to. Aono blames his death on herself because she didn’t go through with the sacrificial ceremony and so she takes her own life. Matsuri, who had been alone up until then, enjoyed her life with Aono and Yorito and learned of the pain of solitude. Not wanting to be alone, she used her yaka powers, which allow her to turn any dead human into a yaka, to bring Aono back. Aono curses her for forcing her into a world without Yorito, and starts working on her paper mache brother.

Back in the present, Matsuri is determined to reverse her selfish mistake and return everything to the way it should have been. She confronts Aono and baits her to a safer place to fight by telling her the truth, that Yorito has chosen her and won’t keep keep his promise to live on with Aono.

After a brief lull in the action with a rather melancholic fake date between Yorito and Matsuri, the action begins. Aono takes the bait and the fight begins.

Despite my hate for Aono, I have to admit, she’s an awesome battle tactician. Not only is her control over her yaka powers much better than Matsuri, her use of feints and her rapid adaptation to the surrounding environment completely overwhelmed Matsuri, who really sucks at fighting.

Managing to break away from Matsuri assault for a while, Aono has a talk with Yorito. He tells her to stop all this and put an end to this sham, even if it means sacrificing his already meaningless existence. Aono can’t agree to that, not after everything she’s done to be together with him, she refuses to accept his decision. Yorito takes that as the final indication that she doesn’t consider him as human, only as one of her origami creations. The real Yorito did things that made Aono upset and uneasy, but that’s what being human is all about, for her to force existence on him makes him no different from any other paper puppets that she’s created in the past.

Their talk is cut short by Matsuri, who managed to fight through Aono onslaught of paper controlled projectiles. Yorito breaks free from Aono’s binds, tackles her to the ground and holds her there. As an old movie projector lights up the background with a picture of the clear blue sky, Yorito and Matsuri’s resolve is given a final push. Matsuri places her life force into Hige’s sword, which has the power to return a yaka to human if another yaka’s life force is projected. She raises it above the terrified Aono, and…

…damn cliffhangers -_-”

Thoughts

I couldn’t have been happier with this episode, it went exactly as I had hoped Sola’s ending would. It would have been nice to actually see Matsuri stab Aono and put an end to it, but it’s not like I wasn’t expecting the cliffhanger. Though I wouldn’t say we’re out of the woods just yet, this is Kanon’s writer we’re talking about, so it’s entirely possible for him to pull out some crazy ending where everyone manages to life happily every after with no blood shed. However, I’d like to think that at this point, he’d know better than to pull of such a bs ending.

In my naive hopes, I’d like to see the hundred years of aging come back to Aono all in one instant and for her to suffer a painful death as her brother is reduced to a pile of scrap paper right beside her and Matsuri dying from blood loss after having stabbed herself and giving away her life force. An ending like that would boost Sola from an anime which used past techniques effectively to tell a great story to LEGENDARY status. But I think that’s too optimistic, so I’ll be content as long as Yorito disappears, it doesn’t even matter if Aono dies or not, because either way she’ll have to suffer the pain of losing her brother all over again, which is sweet justice in my eyes.

The fighting in this episode was surprisingly good, hell it’s better than anything Bleach or Naruto has come up with in the past couple seasons (an entire episode to break that boulder, wtf!?). Although I was disappointed with the slight overuse of paper bunshin no jutsu, it toyed with my emotions T_T Every time I thought Matsuri had her, but noooo, they were fakes. Ohshi-, did I just sum up every single Naruto fight in the past couple hundred episodes?

Although I’ve been picking on the script writers for the past couple episodes, I have to admit that their pacing of this episode was really well done. They placed comedic relief well, the fake date scene between Yorito and Matsuri served as a perfect “calm before the storm” moment, and it reminded me that even the most basic of literary techniques can surpass even the most complex JUST AS PLANNED scenarios if done right.

Of course, Matsuri love contributed to the overall win of that scene too. Noto Mamiko voicing her is a perfect fit, her high pitched childlike tone is a joy to listen to and does well in easing the tension when needed. But when she switches to her deeper, serious voice the resolution and determination in her voice comes through clearly and you forget about her moeblob alter ego.

Normally, I don’t pay much attention to seiyuu, but the sheer amount of Noto series I’ve been watching lately, as well as Soda being a huge fanboy of hers, has made me into somewhat of a Noto fanboy myself. But Rie Kugimiya still stands atop my favourite seiyuu list, my love for Shana is eternal.

So with one episode left I’m shaking with anticipation, if everything follows through on this amazing set up, this is going to be one hell of an ending. But on the other hand, if the “Miracle’s really do happen” card were to be played at this point, the whole series would collapse into a pile of wasted potential and hypocritical character development.

Pleeeeease don’t let them fuck this up!

~ Shirukii ~

I’m a little split on this episode. On one hand the memory wipe card was played, this usually means that some random, nonsensical deus ex machina ending is imminent. However, it ended with an awesome Matsuri vs Aono standoff cliffhanger which leaves potential for an epic faceoff. Please God let it be the latter!

Episode Rating: 8.5/10

The episode starts off with Yorito solemnly taking down his beloved artificial sky roof. In context, it looks like it signifies his will to go through with whatever plan he and Matsuri cooked up last episode.

A flashback to the night Yorito went to see Matsuri shows us what happened between Yorito and Aono when he got back. Yorito tells Aono that he now knows everything that she’s been hiding from him, but despite all that his wish is to make her happy and suggests leaving town to start all over again.

Until then, life is seemingly back to normal for Yorito. He goes to school only to ditch class and take pictures of the sky on the roof, just like in the past. When Mana tries to ask Yorito what’s really going on, he stops her and asks her not to push for details. Mana calls him selfish for not telling her anything despite all she’s gone through with him and runs off.

Mana tries to calm down by going out with her friends, but when they notice her odd behaviour she runs off again. When one of them tracks her down, Mana caves and starts talking about Yorito, but her friend has no idea who she’s talking about. She, nor any of other Mana’s friends have any idea who Morimiya Yorito is, and when Mana takes out her cellphone to show them a picture of him, she’s shocked to find that he’s disappeared from the picture.

Mana rushes back to the school rooftop to see Yorito, who’s still standing there watching the sunset. The two lie down and watch the shades of orange, yellow and red blend together to create a unique and beautiful sunset. Suddenly Mana asks Yorito to take her hand so that she can believe that he’s really here. She tells him that she won’t forget. She won’t forget waking up everyday to walk to school together with Koyori, she won’t forget how their teacher will get mad at him for spacing out and watching the sky, she won’t forget how he rushes up to the roof the second the bell rings. No matter how much Yorito wants her to, she’ll never forget.

As the sun sets behind the mountaintops, Yorito lets go of Mana’s hand and disappears from her life, leaving Mana with no idea why she’s on the school roof, and no idea why she can’t stop crying…

Meanwhile, there’s another sad goodbye happening. Despite Aono’s warning that she will be leaving town with Yorito soon, Koyori comes to visit one last time. As an homage to their first meeting, Koyori asks her to teach her more origami. As the day winds down, Koyori can’t understand why even though they’re friends and want to be together, they’re being pulled apart.

Elsewhere, loli in a garbage can and hige prepare to leave town as well, reasoning that if they stay, loli in a garbage can will stop Matsuri from doing what she feels is necessary. Having taught Matsuri everything she needs to know, the two say their goodbyes and part ways.

Back at Yorito’s house, Aono is packing the last of their things when she hears a noise at the door. Expecting to see Yorito, Aono is shocked to find Matsuri standing there, armed with a sword no less.

Thoughts

Bah. Memory wipes, lazy plot device is laaaaazy.

Sure it’s an effective way to sneak in plot elements that would have otherwise taken a load of drama to arrive at otherwise and in time constrained series like Sola it’s effective at doing so. But it’s just so cliche and overused that I can’t help but think of it as a cheap gimmick. In hindsight, I would gladly give up some of those slice of life episodes to make room for a logical unfolding of events leading to Aono and Dorito-kun leaving town. But to pull a memory wipe and disappear like that is lame.

And so the only redemption in sight is an epic battle between Aono and Matsuri leading to someone’s death. I’m not asking for a Hamlet-esque “LOL EVERYBODY DIES” ending, but SOMEONE has to go.

Best case scenario is that Matsuri either kills Aono, or injures her to the point where she learns her lesson and lets go of the past (ie. Dorito-kun disappears). I don’t even care if Matsuri goes through with her end of the deal and cooks herself alive, but Yorito is a fragment of the past, and to truly arrive at anything resembling closure in this series, he needs to go.

Aside from the potential disaster that the memory wipe foreshadows, I must say that the episode itself was done quite well. It wasn’t exactly a tear jerker, but seeing Mana plead with Yorito and promise that she will never forget him was pitiable to say the least. I also couldn’t help but feel sorry for Koyori, coping with loss isn’t something someone that young should ever have to go through, even if her mental age is considerably higher.

Another thing I’m particularly amazed at is the animation quality. While the series isn’t without it’s lapses in quality, on a whole the animation is beautiful and pretty consistent, the backgrounds in particular were often awe inspiring.

On a less praising note. Sae. Please, PLEASE! STFU! God her voice is annoying.

~ Shirukii ~

Well then…I sure didn’t see that coming, although in hindsight it makes a lot of sense.

After 9 episodes of build up, Sola finally reaches its major plot revelation/twist. With only 2 episodes and an OVA remaining that means either we’ll hit the climax next episode, aftermath in episode 12 and a sidestory OVA -OR- a build up to climax through the next episode to the finale and an OVA dealing with the aftermath.

In either case, I see a lot of people’s opinions of Sola have been changing these past few episodes. It took a long time for Sola to break out of its ’slice of life’ precursor, but at least it’s all coming to a satisfying and coherent end.

Episode Rating: 9/10

Yorito and Mana visit the abandoned building where Yorito stabbed Matsuri and his memory finally comes back to him. Wanting to know the truth about what’s going on, Yorito regains his resolve to find Matsuri. Before they leave, Mana tells Yorito the truth about Aono, that she too is a yaka.

Meanwhile, Matsuri and Loli in a Garbage Can get some more talking done. Mayuko is obviously aware that Matsuri is thinking about Yorito, but when she tries to get her to talk about it, Matsuri just ignores her and changes the topic. Mayuko thinks that Matsuri is unable to trust her because of her ties with Hige, but Matsuri says that’s not the case and that even if she were to share her worries, there’s nothing anyone can do.

Hoping to better understand what’s going on, Yorito returns home to talk with Aono. Koyori is there as well and they all have lunch together, almost as if things were back to normal. But when Koyori leaves, it’s apparent that they’re not, Yorito confronts Aono and asks her what she’s hiding from him. Aono says she’s not hiding anything and as long as she’s able to live together with Yorito, nothing else is important.

As Aono tries to approach Yorito, he stops her in her tracks by opening the blinds and letting sunlight pour in. Realizing that he’s not going to get anything out of his sister, Yorito leaves her to rot in her own depression. (HAH!)

Elsewhere, Mana is busy trying to track down Hige, after hearing from Sae that he was looking for the tomato soup drink that Matsuri likes. After spotting him boarding a streetcar and chasing said streetcar all around town, she finally catches up to him only to be told that he’s not friends with Matsuri. But Mana knows otherwise and begs him to tell deliver a message to her: “Morimiya Yorito is suffering”.

I guess Mana’s message got through because Yorito and Matsuri are reunited again, in the same very same place as their last meeting. This time it’s Matsuri’s turn to do the stabbing, being the only way to show Yorito the truth, Matsuri impales Yorito with Hige’s sword. Upon doing so, Yorito’s hand explodes into a flurry of origami paper.

A flashback explains the rest. Aono, Matsuri and Yorito were friends hundreds of years ago, but Yorito was killed in what looks a mudslide of sorts. While Matsuri was able to accept the truth and move on, Aono wasn’t ready to let go, and after hundreds of years found a way to implant Yorito’s memories and consciousness into one of her origami dolls, and the result is the present day Yorito.

Finding out that you’re a remnant of the past created with paper isn’t exactly the best news in the world, but luckily Yorito has Matsuri to cheer him up. She explains that the past doesn’t matter, the Yorito in front of her is just as real an existence, with memories and feelings that are his own, to prove her point she kisses him. Matsuri suggests putting an end to everything and asks Yorito to disappear with her.

To prepare for the inevitable confrontation, Matsuri goes to Hige for help, asking him to teach her how to use his sword.

Thoughts

It might have taken a while for Sola to get to the point, but things are falling into place nicely and all the loose ends are being tied up.

I especially like how each character introduced plays a significant part in the unfolding of the story’s events. Mana, who I thought would be relegated to background scenery once Aono and Matsuri stepped in, was surprisingly crucial to the plot, running around gathering information to relay to Dorito-kun so he could make the right decisions.

And last episode we learned the truth about Loli in a Garbage Can and her relationship with Hige. Although it was pretty cliche, I liked how they handled her past. The scene where she stopped Hige from killing Matsuri and his breakdown afterwards was well done, though I still wonder how he managed to scale that tower to get behind Matsuri so fast.

Even Sae, although still largely a token character, played her part in bringing things together. She served as sort of a deus ex plot device to deliver crucial bits of information exactly when they’re needed. Taking coincidence too far? Maybe. But with only 12 episodes to work with and much of it spent on eye candy and build up, shortcuts were inevitable.

However, it’s no mistaking that the plot still revolves around the three central characters: Matsuri, Aono and Dorito-kun. Matsuri continues to be my favourite character of the entire cast. Her ability to accept reality, deal with it and move on places her leaps and bounds above Aono, although it can be argued that shes doing it as a means to protect herself from being hurt and not being honest with her feelings. But nevertheless, it’s this outlook on life that keeps her in bright spirits, and that rubbed off even on to Yorito, who just found out that he’s made out of paper. I’d say it’s quite a feat to cheer up someone who just gained that sort of knowledge.

Aono on the other hand, continues to live in the past, and is getting burned for it, rightfully so. Her wish to live with a fake Yorito is selfish and though she may be fooling everyone else, deep down she must be aware that the real Yorito is long gone and that she’s only prolonging her suffering by having to face a fake every day.

* * *

With the ending in sight, am I the only one who foresees a potential disaster for Sola’s finale?

Matsuri and Yorito’s decision to disappear with each other is the catalyst for said disaster. This means Matsuri killing Aono to break her link with Yorito, and then baking herself in the sun to end it all. On one hand, that would be an epic ending -IF- they actually play it out that way.

The problem lies in the tendency for studios wanting their anime to end happily, with the way things are set up, this would likely mean some random wtfux ending where Yorito pulls a Pinocchio and becomes a real human. At that point they’d probably take it a step further and heal everyone of their yaka condition so they can live happily ever after. It’s that sort of ending that I fear. Let alone cheapening Matsuri’s determination to put an end to things, that sort of conclusion would cheapen the entire tone of the series, at which point the OVA would turn out to be some sort of trash harem spinoff. DO NOT WANT!

But that having been said, should Matsuri really have to kill Aono to put an end to things?

Hige and loli in a garbage can were after Matsuri’s head because killing her supposedly returns all those she has turned into yakas to their human form. So if Matsuri were to cook herself, wouldn’t Aono return to human, causing her to lose her powers and leaving Dorito-kun as a pile of scrap paper? That’s what they’re going for anyways, why go through the trouble of killing Aono.

But I guess that would mean no epic Aono vs Matsuri showdown, and that’s something I do want to see…

~ Shirukii ~

I am the bone of my origami.
Paper is my body, and control is my blood.
I have folded over a thousand sheets.
Unknown to sunlight.
Nor clear blue skies.
Have withstood pain to bed my brother.
Yet, these hands will never hold him.
So as I pray, UNLIMITED PAPER WORKS.

Not a bad episode, despite being Aono centric, plot is developing at an acceptable rate. Lucky for Matsuri, she got stabbed in episode 7 and not in this episode, else she would have surely died.

Episode Rating: 8.5/10

Yorito wakes up in the middle of a lecture, confused and unable to remember anything that’s happened recently. After class Mana asks him how he’s feeling, he says that he’s fine but his memory is mixed up and when he tries to stand up he collapses.

Mana takes him home to Aono and they lie him down, after seeing how mixed up he is, Aono carries him upstairs so he can rest and brushes Mana off.

Elsewhere, Sae is on her way home, late from work, when she sees loli in a garbage can and Matsuri walk into a dark alley together. Matsuri still hasn’t recovered from Aono’s stab wound, opting to take the pain instead of using her yaka powers to heal herself, because she feels it’s punishment for breaking her promise to Yorito. As for loli in a garbage can, she met Matsuri one rainy day when the clouds suddenly parted and she was left in the sun. It turns out that she is also a yaka, and Matsuri happened to pass by just as she was being burned by the light and saved her.

The next day at school, Sae shows Mana the picture she took of Matsuri and loli in a garbage can. Wanting to tell Yorito right away, Mana asks Sae to send the picture to her and tell the teacher that she’s sick. But it’s Aono who answers the door at Yorito’s house, and after hearing Mana’s story, she tells her to leave at once. Mana persists, saying that Matsuri is an important person to Yorito, this angers Aono and she ends up pushing Mana away, exposing her hand to the burning sunlight while doing so.

That evening, Yorito’s condition continues to worsen. He begins to dream about stabbing Matsuri and his mind goes berserk, Aono tries to hold him down but ends up getting tossed around and burned after Yorito accidentally tears the curtain away. She eventually calms him down and then leaves to finish this once and for all, i.e. to confront Matsuri.

While Aono is out, Mana ninjas her way into the house to see Yorito. When she sees him in his depressed, zombie-like state, she slaps him out of it and shows him the picture of Matsuri and telling him that she’s still nearby. Yorito snaps back to life and, recognizing the train yard from the picture, heads out with Mana to chase down Matsuri.

Meanwhile, Aono has already tracked Matsuri down and starts hurling sharpened paper airplanes at her.

Thoughts

Aono, death, fire, etc.

I still can’t really pinpoint why I hate Aono so much, there have been selfish and jealous driven antagonists like her in the past and I never had this much hate for them.

It’s especially odd because I’m usually all for siscon. Although the general trend is that incest fails when the sister is the one to initiate, as opposed to the high success rate when the roles are reversed.

Anyways, putting Aono hate aside, there are a few questions raised by this episode. When Aono was talking to Dorito-kun after Mana brought him in, he mentioned that they were blood-related siblings. Assuming it wasn’t a horrible translation error, how exactly does that work?

From the flashbacks we’ve seen so far, I think it’s a safe bet to say that they were set in the relatively distant past. Aono also said in one of these that life without Yorito is not worth living, suggesting that he died. So how could present day Yorito possibly be Aono’s blood related brother? The only explanation I can come up with is that Aono haxed his memory to make him think that, but that’s a pretty weak plot development.

Loli in a garbage can also remains a mystery. It’s now clear that she’s also a yaka, as suspected, but that raises the question of why Hige is fighting for her. He told Yorito not to get involved with yakas, and curses their existence, yet he fights to protect one.

Next episode is set up for some potential win, Matsuri is injured, fighting an angered and jealous Aono and Yorito is on his way to the scene. The rather ominous title ‘At the End of a Promise’ doesn’t suggest a very good fortune for Matsuri though =\ But then again, it could be interpreted as Dorito-kun fulfilling his promise.

Meh, as always, we’ll find out next week.

~ Shirukii ~

Now with 100% more loli chop!

As much as I hate Aono centric episodes, I have to admit that this one in particular wasn’t all that bad. A lot of plot revelations and an equal amount of questions raised. Riding the momentum from last week, it looks like Sola is starting to capitalize on the massive amounts of potential it’s shown since the beginning.

Episode Rating: 9/10

Days and weeks pass by since Matsuri’s disappearance after her late night date with Yorito, this time not even leaving him with an art defacing “bai bai”. And she’s not the only one who has disappeared without a trace, loli in a garbage can has also ditched Hige, presumably because of his incessant lying.

During their meeting the night Aono left the hospital, Matsuri promised her that she would never show herself in front of her and Yorito again. However, Aono doesn’t tell Yorito about it, instead trying to ease the pain of her leaving by getting rid of anything that reminded him of Matsuri. This pisses Yorito off and he scolds Aono and Koyori, who helps in the redecoration, before running off to the park.

Aono shows up, gives him back his pictures of the sky and apologizes for her actions. They walk around town as Yorito admits that he knows that Matsuri is gone for good, but he wanted to keep even the slightest bit of hope alive.

After a month passes without Matsuri’s return, Aono is getting settled into Yorito’s life once again. Her relationship with Yorito also advances, and one afternoon they decide to go on a date. The date itself mirrors that of the one Yorito and Matsuri went on, to the point where Yorito begins to reminisce about her.

Yorito decides to stop by the convenience store to grab a towel to dry off Aono, who lost her umbrella to a gust of wind. Much to his surprise, Matsuri is there at the same time, casually buying her favourite drink. When she sees Yorito she makes a run for it. When Yorito starts to chase after her, he’s stopped by Aono, who begs him to let her go and stay with her. But Yorito’s feelings for Matsuri are still strong, he shrugs Aono off, apologizes, and continues to chase after her.

Yorito eventually manages to track Matsuri, who’s staying in a run down apartment with loli in a garbage can. He begs her to come back home with him, not knowing that she’s promised Aono to stay out of his life. But it’s too late for that, Yorito obviously loves Matsuri, and in a last ditch attempt, he hugs her and once again asks her to come back.

Meanwhile, Aono, who thought she had Yorito all to herself now, goes into a jealous fit. Using what I can only assume are her yaka powers, she takes over Yorito’s body and forces him to stab Matsuri with a nearby shard of glass.

Thoughts

Aono needs to fucking die in a fire. For such a passive character, she’s quite the attention whore. In any situation that causes her discomfort or inconvenience, she takes one of two actions, she either ignores the problem completely with the silent treatment, or causes physical harm to the object of annoyance. This was all fun and games when she was karate chopping Koyori or kicking Dorito-kun in the shins. But to go as far as stabbing her love rival!? Bitch needs to die!

With that out of my system, there’s still a lot of mysteries surrounding Aono. The above flashback scene confirms what a lot of people were saying last week, that Aono was once human. Meaning that Matsuri’s act of reviving her was what caused her to turn into a yaka.

My guess is that Aono probably guilted Matsuri into leaving her with Dorito-kun, in retribution for having turned her into a monster. But it’s still not explained how Aono and the present day Yorito met, how they became siblings, or how he’s related to the Yorito from the past.

Not that I’m really complaining, but the animation producers seem to have a hair fetish XD Not only this episode, but varying hairstyles have been used for the characters throughout the series so far. If anything, it’s just making their job harder, as they have to develop new character models, but it keeps the animation fresh, so I guess it’s not in vain. And because someone’s going to point it out anyways…*insert comical remark about similarity to the hair scene in Haruhi*

Another question brought up by this episode is how exactly Matsuri and loli in a garbage can ended up in their current situation. Come to think of it, had loli in a garbage can ever seen Matsuri when Hige was hunting her? Either way, after living with her for over a month, I’m pretty sure they’ve sorted out each other’s identity.

Loli in a garbage can remains one of the anomalies in Sola, there hasn’t been much emphasis on her development as a character, but there are enough hints to suggest that she plays a fairly significant role in all this. I demand answers!

But I guess it’ll have to wait for another week, at least.

GTFO

~ Shirukii ~

A twintails is fine too

This episode kicked all sorts of ass, FINALLY giving us viewers (or maybe it’s just me) some sense of direction with the plot. It’s not the most original of developments, but it’s certainly better than nothing, at the very least taking Sola out of the “generic harem” classification.

Episode Rating: 9.5/10

The episode starts off with yet another flashback/dream, in which Matsuri, Aono and Yorito are in much the same dilemma they face in the present, but in a noticeably different era.

Back in the present, Kyoshiro Zwei goes to see the doctor about his arm, on strict orders from loli in a garbage can. His arm is diagnosed as showing signs of necrosis (basically, cellular decay), which he insists is no big deal, as its happened before. Loli in a garbage can knows that it has something to do with when he went out to hunt Matsuri, but with Kyoshiro unwilling to tell her anything, there’s little she can do.

Meanwhile, Yorito decides that he’s going to tell Aono about Matsuri. He thinks of introducing her as just a friend, but Mana is convinced that Aono won’t accept that, and decides that they will pretend to be a couple.

When Matsuri finds out about the plan, she doesn’t seem adverse. In fact, she begins to tease Yorito, asking him if there’s anyone he likes, and when he says no, suggests that they kiss, only to back away at the last second pretending it was a joke, even though saying otherwise. However, when she hears that Yorito’s sister is named Aono, a serious look takes over her face.

When they go to visit the hospital the next day, they are unable to introduce Matsuri in the end, as Aono pretends to be sleeping through the visiting hours. Just as they’re about to get on the streetcar home, Matsuri notices Aono out of the corner of her eye and tells everyone that she’ll walk home. She chases down Aono and we find out that Aono is also a yaka, like Matsuri. The two talk about how they each ended up in their current situations before heading back home.

In the middle of a trivial argument over dinner, Matsuri shows up, surprisingly, with Aono in tow. Aono says she’s feeling much better, has gotten permission to leave the hospital and will be staying at home for a while.

Later that night, Yorito takes Matsuri to his school. They wander around a bit as Yorito shows Matsuri his classroom, where he hangs out at lunch time and where he likes to take pictures of the sky. Suddenly, Matsuri starts to ramble about the reason why people sleep, and ends up kissing Yorito, playfully telling him that she wasn’t joking about it earlier. As she walks off and Yorito turns around to confront her, he’s surprised to find that she’s disappeared.

Thoughts

FINALLY, some plot developments that I can theorize about. If you haven’t noticed by now, I come up with a lot of insane theories. Not so much that I like doing so, more like it’s a natural process for my mind.

Most strikingly is the flashback/dream sequences that Matsuri has, in which we see Matsuri, Aono and Yorito. Since Matsuri and Aono are yakas, the ones we see in the flashback are almost certainly the same ones we see in the present, just much earlier in their lives. However, since the Yorito in the flashback is obviously human, it can’t be the same Dorito-kun from the present time line.

So, in one of the most cliche and overused literary devices in existence, the unfolding events are actually a recurrence of what has already happened in the past. Matsuri and Aono are living the harsh lives of yakas, when suddenly they meet Yorito, who in both cases not only didn’t fear them, but swore to bring them under the sunlit sky. In Aono’s case, his kindness has such a profound impact that when he died, she tried to kill herself, only to be saved by Matsuri. And even now, when she finds another human with the same characteristics, personality and physical wise, she latches on.

Does this reduce my hate for Aono? Not really. But I do accept that she plays a crucial role in the plot and so I can’t exactly ignore her existence anymore. On that note, I’m pleased that my guess that she was a yaka like Matsuri was correct (though, it really was obvious). I didn’t see the whole seppuku thing coming though.

As for what happens from here, the scene at the end can be taken in a lot of different ways. Matsuri disappearing might suggest that she thinks it’s time to move on and leave Dorito-kun behind, either in fear that she’ll become too attached to him, or that she shouldn’t get in Aono’s way. But given that there’s no immediate danger of another attack from Kyoshiro Zwei, and that Matsuri seems to have fallen for Dorito-kun, that won’t be the case and she’ll turn up at home as always.

Matsuri love ++. Noto Mamiko is probably the only seiyuu that could pull this role off. The half naive, half playful tone is a perfect fit for Matsuri’s character, while able to bring out her melancholic side when appropriate. Being a sucker for harems, no matter how generic they are, scenes like the futon scene make me all warm and fuzzy inside, it’s my guilty pleasure =( And Matsuri’s abilities to confuse the hell out of the typical harem lead greatly exceed average, making it all the more fun to watch.

And so the only character that remains completely untouched is loli in a garbage can. We have no clue as to her origins or relationship with Kyoshiro Zwei. I’ve got no guesses either, only a hope that it’s nothing absurd like she’s a yaka as well, that would be idiotic.

Animation wise, things are still looking great. The animators even gave Matsuri yet another hairstyle and set of clothes, a trend which I hope we’ll keep seeing. The backgrounds are showing slight drops in quality, but not noticeable enough for me to bring up any real complaints.

And so Sola has redeemed itself, characters and plot are finally moving forward at a decent pace, leaving enough information to speculate, but not enough to give anything away.

~ Shirukii ~

So I skipped blogging episode 04, partly because I was too lazy at the time, but mostly because an abundance of Aono and a severe lack of Matsuri made it fail beyond all comprehension. Even the presence of Koyori couldn’t save it, so I decided to just skip it. But to sum it up: Koyori is released from the hospital, prompting an onslaught of guilt for leaving Aono alone, and a flashback to when they first met.

Episode Rating: 8.5/10

Fifth episodes must be prime time for flashbacks or something. Claymore and StrikerS started with them, and Sola follows suit. The flashback seems to be from Kyoshiro Zwei, seventeen years in the past he is standing over a dead body in what looks to be a mansion.

Back to the present, it happens to be raining quite hard, with enough cloud cover to block out the sky. With the sun hidden, Matsuri and Yorito are free to go on a date in the rain. Yorito shows Matsuri the best places for viewing the sky at various times of the day and is dragged onto a boat ride where he helps Matsuri imagine floating under the clear blue sky.

Later that day, Yorito goes to visit Aono at the hospital, leaving Matsuri at home, alone. Suddenly, she hears someone sneak into the house. It turns out to be Koyori, who had been sent by Aono to get a sowing kit to patch up one of Yorito’s plushies which had torn. Promising not to tell anyone she was there, Matsuri sees her off.

But the real intruder shows up afterwards, Matsuri is confronted by Kyoshiro Zwei after Koyori leaves. He chases Matsuri around the house, using the light to corner her. But as he’s about to deliver the final blow, he lets his guard down and Matsuri manages to grab him. She uses her accelerated aging tech on his arm to temporarily incapacitate him and run outside.

Sitting helplessly in the sun, Matsuri doesn’t have the energy to fight anymore. Kyoshiro Zwei finds her and attacks, but Yorito jumps in at the last second, scapegoating the attack. He stands his ground in front of Kyoshiro Zwei, refusing to break his promise to show Matsuri the open sky. Conveniently, Mana shows up at this time, forcing Kyoshiro Zwei to retreat for the day.

Thoughts

A much better episode than the last, to say the least. Although I’m still concerned about the pacing, major plot elements haven’t been explained yet, and the action scenes never seem to resolve a thing. There have been two encounters between Kyoshiro Zwei and Matsuri, but in each, neither has the guts to finish the other off and we end up back at square one.

About the only development in plot we saw this week was Kyoshiro Zwei’s brief flashback. Seeing as the plot doesn’t seem to be overly complex, I’ll go ahead and assume that it was one of Matsuri’s kind that killed the girl. I doubt that it was Matsuri herself, seeing as she doesn’t seem like a killer, but it’d be interesting if it were. Though we still don’t know the stories behind loli in a box, Aono, nor the details behind what exactly Matsuri is.

According to the main site, Sola is going to be 15 episodes long, 2 of which will be DVD only specials. Meaning that this will all have to be explained within 8 more episodes. Not to say that it’s impossible, but if they don’t start explaining things soon, this ending is going to suck hard.

Character development is progressing nicely though, which is always a plus. Dorito-kun in particular surprised me by taking that slash for Matsuri. I thought of him as a typical wussy male lead with only soraphaelia distinguishing him from the rest, but he’s proven himself sufficiently manly in this episode by protecting Matsuri and having the determination to see his promise through no matter what.

Although, all things considered, that slash would not have killed Matsuri. It gave Dorito-kun a shallow flesh wound, and he’s human. Unless it was aimed at her jugular vein (assuming she has one) or another vital point, that wasn’t a fatal blow by any means. Kyoshiro Zwei probably wasn’t going for the kill, possibly because Matsuri had an opportunity to kill him just minutes before, and she let it slide. Chivalry lives!

Obligatory “Ponytails turn me on” screenie

Aside from story elements, I’m amazed at how consistent the animation is managing to be. There haven’t been any noticeable drops in quality, which is surprising given the animation quality is above average. They even went as far as changing Matsuri’s hair style and clothes for a scene, a sure sign that they have some budget to blow. So at the very least, Sola won’t pull a YoakeNa on us.

Although…on that note:

Huge stairs are huuuuge

So even though I have no idea where Sola is going with itself, it’s still a worthwhile watch and I can only hope that some serious plot development is to be had in the episodes to come. I’d hate to have to classify Sola as yet another series which wasted infinite potential.

Is this what passes for moe these days?

~ Shirukii ~

Sorry for the lateness this time around, finals ftl.

A relatively calm episode, compared to the last two. No action scenes or significant plot development, this week’s installment of Sola was Matsuri fanservice for the masses. From what I got out of it, the whole episode was an attempt to showcase the stupidly naive, innocent, and simple side of Matsuri. In other words, building up her “moe” element.

Episode Rating: 7/10

The episode starts off with the rare occasion of Yorito actually going to school. Apparently he’s been afraid to leave Matsuri alone in fear that he’ll return to a house full of broken appliances. Just as he’s about to leave, Mana shows up on the front porch. Yorito panics and tries to obstruct Mana’s view so she can’t see Matsuri, but little does he know that Matsuri already ninja’d her way upstairs, leaving him looking like an idiot.

Flash forward to after school and one of Yorito’s rare visits to the hospital. He brings another plushie gift for Aono, which is once again tossed aside and ridiculed for bad taste. With Matsuri on his mind, Yorito decides to leave asap, this awakens attention whore Aono, who gives Yorito the silent treatment.

Outside the hospital, Mana questions Yorito on why he’s been so secretive and distant lately. She knows he’s hiding something, and for him to hide it from Aono too, it has to be something big. Yorito profusely denies the accusations and runs off.

Yorito returns home to find that Matsuri went to the convenience store to do some shopping, which to her means buying the cheapest thing available, even if it looks horrible. And so, avocado ramen, which even she can’t deny tastes terrible after trying some.

Being the only decent cook among the cast, this cues Mana’s entrance. Yorito tries to stop her from coming in, in fear that she’ll see Matsuri, but she forces her way through anyways. Luckily Matsuri had the sense to run upstairs and out of sight. As Matsuri prepares dinner, Yorito has a panic attack thinking about what would happen if Mana discovers Matsuri. This is, of course, what Mana has in mind, and with no seasoning for cooking, she uses that as an excuse to get Yorito out of the house.

Mana’s search of the house comes up blank, until she returns to the kitchen to find a hungry Matsuri snacking on her salad. Awkwardness ensues.

The rest of the episode is Yorito trying to explain who Matsuri is, and Matsuri ruining all of his explanations. They finally give up and tell Mana the half-truth, that she’s just a random girl who needed food and a place to stay, so Yorito took her in, like a stray cat. Apparently this explanation is enough to satisfy Mana, and she promises not to tell anyone about her. And so, with her acceptance set in stone, Matsuri goes to fetch her things and settle in for an extended stay.

Thoughts

Word of the day: ayashi~

So this episode was kind of boring. While it was nice to see the interaction between the main characters, it was missing the couple minutes of action sequence that broke up the monotony, like in the previous two episodes.

I thought the plot pacing for Sola would be really fast, seeing as they only have 13 episodes to work with, but it’s going surprisingly slow. The script writers need to decide whether they want to go with the mystery approach using Kyoshiro Zwei and sun fearing creatures of the night, or slice of life romance, because drifting around in the middle leaves me wanting more from each side. Makes me wonder if they’re writing this as they go along, since there is no source material for Sola, the game and manga are apparently in parallel production with the anime.

On a more awesome note: Matsuri’s a freaking ninja. The two times where Mana showed up at the front door, Matsuri had to run through her direct line of sight, up the only set of stairs to the second floor. She does it both times without being seen or heard (I even cranked up my volume and listened for faint footsteps, nothing). And when Mana gets Dorito-kun out of the house and makes her way upstairs, Matsuri ninja’s her way past her to get downstairs, and steals her food. But alas, her gluttony was her undoing, as she lets down her guard to eat and is caught.

But what’s with Matsuri’s change in behaviour this time around. Last time she was all “I’ve lived for ‘n’ centuries and haven’t died yet so STFU human, I can take care of myself” Yet this episode reveals that she can’t do anything for herself and hasn’t exactly adjusted to life in the 21st century just yet. This is just more evidence that the writers seem to be writing as they go along, which can have some iffy results, if normal television is any indication…

…actually “normal” TV bores the hell out of me and I haven’t watched any in about a year, so that’s just a guess.

I won’t comment on the building of Matsuri’s “moe” elements. If lolikit-kun’s posts of late are any indication, he’ll probably mention something about it.

On a less awesome note: Aono is still a childish attention whore and needs to go die in a fire. She wants attention from Dorito-kun, yet when he goes out his way to buy her a present, she tosses it aside and ridicules his bad taste. What ever happened to “It’s the thought that counts”? I wouldn’t want to spend time with her if I was Dorito-kun either. I’m also beginning to think she really does have the same condition as Matsuri, or at least an early stage of it, which would be awesome because I called it, but would also suck because it’s a generic cop out excuse for plot development.

And I usually don’t notice these things, but was there a slight drop in animation quality this week? It might just be because I was tired, but it didn’t seem as awe inspiring this week. Though it also might have been because most of the episode was set indoors and there wasn’t any whoamg light arrows and collapsing scaffolds.

Lastly, I know I was complaining about the amount of soraphaelia in the previous two episodes and begging them to tone it down a bit, but I didn’t want them to cut it out completely! It was the absolute opposite end of the spectrum in this episode, there was barely any mention/gawking of the sky. As much as I struggle against the grip of soraphaelia, I’m a little saddened in its absence =(

And so I’m left wondering where we’re going with Sola, definitely not a good sign. But three episodes in and none of the characters have spawned mecha limbs, so relatively speaking, we’re in good shape.

…These Kyousora references really have to stop. It mars the healing process T_T

~ Shirukii ~

Lucky Star

The amount of controversy surrounding this series is ridiculous. No sooner than it came out did multiple bloggers start attacking Lucky Star and its producer Kyoto Animation.

I did not like the first episode, it just didn’t live up to its “comedy” genre. However, I will admit that the second episode was slightly better, not by much, but it certainly was an improvement. I’ll stick with it for now, in hopes of gradual improvement, but will not hesitate to drop it if it becomes repetitive. (Or I may just skip to the Lucky Channel skit at the end of each episode, the only segment of Lucky Star that never fails to amuse me)

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS

As one of the people who have been inexplicably drawn to the Nanoha series since the beginning, I had high hopes for this show. While it was far from being a let down, I can’t yet say whether I would classify the latest addition to the series a success.

There’s been a slew of new characters added to the already large roster, and this is make or break point for StrikerS. What it needs to do is develop these characters to the fullest extent possible while not relegating past characters to background scenery, all the while maintaining a reasonably sensible plot. Not exactly an easy task, but it seems to be coming along well, and I’m sure they’ll do their best to maintain their loyal fans and attract new ones.

On that note, someone find me an Alter Fate! The rarity of a place that stocks it rivals that of the original holo Charizard (I couldn’t think of a better analogy, orz ._.)

Sola

As lolikit-kun has repeatedly said:

The beauty of this show is better than sex

This series is mysterious in its ability to draw me in. I sit there with little idea of why I like it, but quickly realize that it doesn’t matter and watch in blind faith anyways.

Perhaps it’s the awesome characters (minus Aono), or the vague yet promising plot, hell maybe it’s even the well above average animation quality. But there’s just something about it that makes it win. Then again, I might just be a soraphile.

Hayate no Gotoku

THIS, my friends, is comedy done right. I have laughed through the better part of every episode so far. Whether it be because the comedy is much more direct than Lucky Star’s subtle cultural references and self-referential parodies, or the fact that it has a Shana clone, but I find myself enjoying this much more than any of the other comedy series this season.

Although the dynamic between Hayate and Nagi is the least impressive of the ShanaX______ series of late, it’s probably meant to be that way. Without any deep underlying connections between the two characters, their relationship is made pure love/hate comedy. That, coupled with the numerous anime references, conscious acknowledgment of the show being an anime (one of my favourite, yet underused, techniques) and general slapstick makes this show an excellent way to waste away 22 minutes of your life in weekly segments.

Nagasarete Airantou

I -HATED- the first episode of this series, but the problem wasn’t in its execution, it was a mishandling of expectations on my part. I went into Nagasarete Airantou expecting a harem type series, and was greeted with copious amounts of fanservice and a a recursive plot instead, needless to say I was sorely disappointed.

But I decided to give it a second chance anyways, because apparently I’m masochistic. This time I went in with a blank mind, ready to accept anything that was thrown at me, knowing that plot is a non-issue. And to my surprise, I found it quite entertaining. It was mindless, fansercivey and the plot didn’t advance an inch, but, admittedly, it was funny. If this doesn’t sound appealing but you’re curious anyways, I’ll save you the trouble, here’s the general template to any episode:

i. Girls compete for the right to bed Ikuto
ii. Suzu protects Ikuto, using her breasts in some way or another
iii. Nosebleeds
iv. Plot reset
v. Acknowledgment of plot reset

Touka Gettan

I once thought YamiBou was confusing anime I would ever see in my entire life. How naive of me. I should write in to Webster Dictionary and demand they add “WTF” to their dictionaries and list Touka Gettan as a synonym.

I dare someone to try and come up with a coherent explanation of what exactly is going on in this series.

Hitohira

Only one episode of Hitohira has been subbed so far, and I’m much too lazy to raw any further ones, but so far it seems promising enough. The premise isn’t exactly what I would call original, shy girls have been done in anime before, Mugi just takes it to the extreme. But with a cast of potentially interesting characters, decent animation, and yuri undertones, I’ll stick with it for now.

Claymore

I picked this one up on a whim and I must say, it’s surprisingly good. It has a typical shounen-esque plotline with evil beings and their slayers roaming around in the world of humans. But so far it’s tackled some interesting morality issues and its plot is developing nicely.

It was the swords and the gore that initially caught my attention, but the way the show (intentionally or not) deals with human nature is interesting. Human tendencies of hypocrisy, fear of the unknown and the moral issues of euthanasia are among those dealt with in the first two episodes alone. While it’s nothing really new in anime, it’s a nice change of pace from shows like Nagasarete so I hope the show stays it’s course and doesn’t end up being a mindless hack and slash.

* * *

I haven’t gotten around to doing: Seto no Hanayome, due to lack of subs, El Cazador de la Bruja, because I’m not done Madlax, and Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo, because lolikit-kun and Hinano said it sucked, my tastes lie somewhat close to them, so I can’t imagine I’d like it either. I may give it a chance in the future if I get extremely bored.

And on a closing note, I will most likely be dropping Lucky Star from my blogging schedule and need a replacement. I’m leaning to Claymore as the best candidate, but wanted to give the readers a say in it. I’ll throw up a poll, the choices are rather limited though, since Soda is thinking of picking up Hayate no Gotoku, I’m left with Hitohira, Nagasarete Airantou, Seto no Hanayome and Claymore as possible choices. Or if you think there’s another series this season that I should do, specify in a comment and I might give it a look.

EDIT* Added Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann since a few people seem to be recommending it.

~ Shirukii ~